Fender Custom Shop Classic '60 Heavy Relic Stratocaster

The Custom Shop Fenders are easily some of the best playing Strats that Fender releases. They're consistently at the top in terms of tone and playability. This guitar features an alder body, bolt-on maple neck with maple fretboard (one piece w/ a skunk stripe), 22 frets, dot inlays, special aged finish, vintage tremolo, HSS configuration, one volume, two tones and a five way switch.

UTILIZATION

The guitar was put together amazing. The first thing you notice is that the heavy relicing done to this guitar looks natural. Some look pretty fake, and I've been known to mess up on this relicing process myself on some of my own guitars. However, the slight rust on the bridge, the way the finish on the body is worn, etc. is all perfect. The neck itself feels very nice, and the fretwork is top notch on these. The nut is cut properly so no issues there. There was no major gap in the neck joint area like certain other production Fenders can sometimes have.

SOUNDS

This guitar sounds awesome. The first thing I should mention is that the guitar itself was a nice, light piece of alder. This lightness directly translated into a very vibrant and resonant tone. The humbucker in the bridge is really the star of the show, and it's what makes this guitar stand out from the regular Fenders. It's a fairly powerful humbucker that delivers some great rock tones. The split positions sound like a proper split position should be, and the middle is hum canceling so no issues with it humming like crazy. The neck pickup is absolutely glorious for those wonderful, bubbly single coil lead tones and sparkling clean tones.

OVERALL OPINION

They're a touch pricey, but you're getting a lot of guitar for your money. The guitars are consistent, sound great, play very nice and look awesome to boot. These are the few Fenders where you can buy sight unseen and rest assured that you're going to get a sick guitar.